46 LITTLE FOLKS 
an enemy, he throws himself on his side, and in a second is rolled 
into a prickly ball, which no animal can pull open. He will allow 
himself to be rolled over, pulled about, and even thrown down from 
high places and never unroll. 
Pliny — a naturalist, who wrote many years ago — says that 
Hedgehogs will climb trees, shake down the choicest fruit, and then 
making themselves into balls, fall down onto it, and carry it off 
sticking to his quills. Now of course we can't say what those old- 
fashioned Hedgehogs may have done, but we can say that they don't 
do this curious trick now. 
Hedgehogs live in the woods, in homes made of moss and such 
things, covered so snugly with leaves that the hardest rain cant 
get through. Baby Hedgehogs are pretty little creatures with 
white spines, and hanging ears, and they look so little like their 
parents, that they have sometimes been mistaken for young birds. 
These little animals eat beetles, frogs, cockroaches, and any- 
thing they can find. They will drive hens off their nests, and eat 
the eggs, and when very hungry they will even eat Madam Hen 
herself. Snakes are pet morsels with them. They first kill it by 
biting on the neck, and then begin at the tail and devour it — as 
you would a radish. 
There's one curious thing about them — that no poison will hurl 
them. They can eat the most violent poisons, and be bitten by 
the most venomous snakes, without effect. 
They are wary little fellows, sleeping through the day, and com- 
ing out at night for food. When cold weather comes on they prepare 
for winter by rolling themselves up in vast quantities of moss and 
leaves, so that no cold can get in, and thus made into a comical 
ball they sleep in their nests till spring. Of course they eat 
nothing, and when they wake they are ferociously hungry, and 
start out ready to attack even a rabbit, if nothing smaller is conve- 
nient. 
Hedgehogs have been tamed, and they are very useful in keep- 
ing basements clear of cockroaches, since the night is their time 
of being out also. I read of a tame Hedgehog, that was kept in 
London to kill black beetles which overran a kitchen. During the 
day Spot — that was his name — would lie before the fire with the 
cat and dog. The dog he never troubled, but the cat was his 
aversion. Once in a while he would suddenly bite her tail — as 
though in play — and then roll up, sp that puss could not pay him 
